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November: Part One

I’m sitting with a sick, sleeping Shiloh on my lap and thought I might have time to blog a bit.

Birthday Concerts

According to Katie’s wish, James and I went to a couple of concerts with her for her birthday. To the first, we just brought Liesel. She was a hoot! I dressed her in the dress Katie had given her for her birthday. She danced to the music and got plenty of attention! Unfortunately, I didn’t have the camera. I also missed the boys, I knew they would have loved it.

We brought all of the kids (and the camera) to the second gig. Here is the kid crew are on the drive down,

The concert was at a coffee shop in the middle of a plaza. The boys were fascinated with the water fountain just outside the door, and they carried their Baby Lion and Baby Panda to a sushi bar to grab a bite to eat.

Shiloh was mezmerized by the music. (Shhh! He’ll be getting a small guitar for Christmas!)

When the concert got too long, the boys had a blast running down the long empty hall to the bathroom. About halfway through the concert, I began looking through all our coats for Baby Panda, but I couldn’t find him. I suspected he might be at the sushi bar, so I headed out in the pouring rain, only to find Baby Panda a few yards from the entrance to the coffee shop…soaking wet! Since they love the story “In Which Piglet is Entirely Surrounded by Water,” Shiloh was able to overcome the tragedy by telling the story in which Baby Panda is entirely surrounded by water. We wrapped him in napkins and set him in front of the heater when we got home. Here are the kids on the drive home.

Since it was so late, James and I sang together most of the way home in order to stay awake. Singing is not something we normally do, but we had a blast! At the end it turned into the worship music that we sang at church when we first were together and hadn’t sung in years. Song after song after song came to mind. We decided to pull James’ guitar out of storage. He’s put new strings on it and he started practicing again. We also got all of the chords to the old worship music. It’s great!

Happy Birthday Katie!

Childbirth

Little did I know that while James and I were singing, my friend and first childbirth student went into labor! I found out that she was in labor via facebook the next morning. My response was more emotional than I had expected! I began to shake and cry and PRAY! I had poured so much time and love into the childbirth classes, and all of a sudden, the birth was happening and I had to be a good friend and wait! I escaped from the kids and cleaned and prayed aloud for about an hour. I felt much calmer after that. Finally, later that evening I got a call from the new mother to tell me of the beautiful, wonderful homebirth that she’d had. I got to see pictures of the birth the next day. I was elated! Congratulations and good job Larry and Chrissy!

I love teaching about natural childbirth! Another friend/mentor of ours saw my passion for it and started praying for God to bring more pregnant women to me. God has! I will be teaching classes for a couple starting in January, and soon I’ll be talking with another pregnant lady about her options regarding birth, and she may also opt for me to teach her. Hopefully, I’ll get to attend a birth as a doula someday, but in my classes I focus so much on having a husband or other close person help the woman in labor, that they realize they don’t really need outside help (especially in the case of a homebirth). I am not certified yet (and no longer wish to be certified under the Bradley Method name), but I found out from my next student that my midwife (who was also the midwife who delivered my friends’ baby and plans to deliver my next student’s baby) heartily approved of me preparing her for natural childbirth. This made my heart soar! God has given me this passion, and it is so rewarding to be blessing others with what I’ve learned about how he created women to birth with the help of those they love and trust!